“BioNanoTox and Toxicity: using Technology to Advance Discovery” was this year’s theme at the 5th BioNanoTox and Applications International Research Conference held at the Peabody Hotel, Little Rock, Arkansas on November 4–5th, 2010. This year, the international participation in this conference increased to 25 countries spanning the globe. The conference began with opening remarks by Paul Howard, Associate Director of the National Center for Toxicological Research, Food and Drug Administration, Jefferson, Arkansas, United States. Two keynote speakers, Dr. Ananth V. Annapragada and Dr. Merle G. Paule presented lectures on “Toxicity of Novel Nanoparticles for CT
imaging” and “The Biology of Neurotoxicity: using Technology to Advance Discovery”, respectively. Teachers, students, faculty, and scientists presented oral and poster presentations on fundamental and translational research related to BioNanoTox and related fields of science. Six presentation sessions were held over the two‐day conference. There were 31 presentations and 39 posters from disciplines ranging from biology to chemistry, toxicology, nanotechnology, computational sciences, mathematics, engineering, plant science, and biotechnology. Poster presentation awards were presented to three high school students, three high school teachers, and three college students. In addition to poster awards a memorial, travel, and BioNanoTox award were presented. This year’s meeting paved the way for a more outstanding meeting for the future.

This paper focuses on human perception of information quality and describes the results of a study on how accuracy is estimated for data shown through a visual representation. The subjective assessment of quality appears to be nonlinear in relation to the actual degree of errors in the dataset. Users are sometimes unable to distinguish between datasets with different quality, and their ability to estimate which is better for certain quality levels than for others. The study also shows that adding complementary information does not always help users to better assess the accuracy of the visualization, and thus of the data. The implication of these results is that, for subjective measures of quality, traditional statistical methods of assessing quality may need to be extended with additional methods to account for the non‐linearity and the behavior of data integration. This study will impact and benefit biological data where biological data exhibits a high level of variation and randomness. It needs to be interpreted by a human being using the data, and the quality they perceive in the data is important in whether and how they employ the results.

Experiments were conducted to determine the effects of Zinc oxide (ZnO)
nanoparticles (NPs) on fish models. Oreochromis mossambicus was orally administered with ZnO NPs (50–100 nm) once and its effects at five different concentrations (60 ppm–100 ppm) were observed for 12 days. Enzymatic assays were performed at every three days interval in the vital tissues of liver, gill, muscle and kidney. The defense enzymes, ethoxyresorufin O‐deethylase (EROD) and glutathione S transferase (GST) exerted a dose dependent elevation up to 6 days. This hike then declines in higher concentrations and extended duration. Whereas the tissue damaging enzymes, glutamate oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), glutamate pyruvic transaminase (GPT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) as well as the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) exhibited a dose and duration dependent increase until the end of the experiment. Among these enzymes, the antioxidant enzymes response to ZnO NP toxicity on fish showed notable continuous induction. This study demonstrates that antioxidant enzymes responses in O. mossambicus could be used as a biomarker for the early detection of nanotoxicity.

During summer 2010, a two‐week‐long scientific workshop “From educational to scientific perspectives: sugar polymers in biology and their applications” was offered for high school teachers and students at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Department of Biology. Teacher and student participants took part in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activities in order to improve math and science skills. Participants were taught various laboratory techniques, computer skills, Public Medical library searches, individual research project, PowerPoint presentation preparation, and a final oral presentation. Each participant was given pre‐ and post‐workshop questionnaires, to gage initial and acquired knowledge. From the questionnaires, it was determined that there was a significant gain in knowledge of basic scientific concepts related to sugar polymers and their applications. It was found that 100% of participants—five teachers and seven students—reported their overall STEM experience as favorable. Furthermore, participants reported that the research project, computer techniques, and PowerPoint presentations were useful. This research experience provides knowledge about basic scientific concepts and is an excellent method to bridge the gap between high school and post‐secondary education for both teachers and students.

The pancreas plays an important role in regulating many of the key endocrine hormones and digestive enzymes that are required for nutrition and survival of the organism. This study examines the pancreatic histology and associated biochemical changes in rats on hind limb suspension (HLS) after exposure to simulated microgravity. Results show that MDA and glutathione levels were significantly increased in the suspended (HLS) groups as compared to the control group. Plasma insulin levels averaged
in the control animals and decreased significantly to
in the suspended group. Histopathology revealed increased vacuolation, pyknosis, membrane thickening, increase of zymogen granules and increase in islets (both in size and number) in the suspended group as compared to the control group.

This article examines some preliminary tests which were performed in order to evaluate the best electrode configuration (width and spacing) for cell culture analyses. Biochips packaged with indium
tin oxide (ITO) interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) were used to perform impedance measurements on A549 cells cultured on the surface of the biochip. Several tests were carried out using a 10 mM solution of Sodium Chloride (NaCl), cell medium and the cell culture itself to characterize some of the configurations already fabricated in the facilities at Tyndall National Institute.

Cysteine proteinases are a very important group of enzymes involved in a variety of physiological and pathological processes including cancer
metastasis and rheumatoid arthritis. In this investigation we used 3D‐Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships (3D‐QSAR) techniques to model the binding of a variety of substrates to two cysteine proteinases, papain, and cathepsin B. The analysis was performed using Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA). The molecules were constructed using standard bond angles and lengths, minimized and aligned. Charges were calculated using the PM3 method in MOPAC. The CoMFA models derived for the binding of the studied substrates to the two proteinases were compared with the expected results from the experimental X‐ray crystal structures of the same proteinases. The results showed the value of CoMFA modeling of flexible hydrophobic ligands to analyze ligand binding to protein receptors, and could also serve as the basis to design specific inhibitors of cysteine proteinases with potential therapeutic value.

The vitality of the American Lobster (Homarus americanus) is correlated to the total hemolymph protein (THP) in lobster hemolymph (blood). The standard technique for determining lobster vitality is to draw blood from a lobster and measure THP with a refractometer. This technique is invasive and endangers the lobster’s health since blood must be drawn from the lobster. In the present work an optical sensor is developed to measure a lobster’s vitality in vivo. It is comprised of a broadband light source, a monochromator, a fiber optic reflection probe, a spectrometer and a computer. This sensor measures protein concentrations by exciting a lobster with 280 nm and 334 nm wavelength light sources and measuring the corresponding absorbance peaks for THP and the fluorescence peak for hemocyanin (Hc), the majority protein in hemolymph. In this work several lobsters are tested. For each lobster, absorbance and fluorescence peaks are measured using the sensor and compared to protein concentrations measured using a refractometer. It is found that the shell thickness and muscle density, which correspond directly to protein concentration and the molting stage of the lobster have a significant effect on the absorbance and fluorescence measurements. It is also found that within specific molting stages, such as pre‐molt and post‐molt, protein concentration measured with a refractometer correlates linearly to absorbance and fluorescence measurements with the optical sensor.

Tacrolimus is a potent immunosuppressant used in liver transplantation to avoid graft rejection. Tacrolimus has a narrow therapeutic index and variable pharmacokinetics, making dose adjustment and therapeutic drug monitoring a complicated task. Increasing the occurrence of adverse effects, especially nephrotoxicity are another concerns. In graft rejection, antigen presentation occurs in the graft and lymphatics. Therefore, by targeting tacrolimus to the liver and spleen, graft survival could be achieved with a decrease in nephrotoxicity. Poly(lactide) tacrolimus nanoparticles (PLA‐TAC‐NP) were formulated and characterized with the aim of targeting tacrolimus to the liver and spleen and therefore decreasing its nephrotoxicity. To evaluate the targeting efficiency of PLA‐TAC‐NP, rats were divided into two groups. They were intravenously injected either PLA‐TAC‐NP or free tacrolimus. At assigned time intervals, blood, liver, spleen and kidney samples were collected from each rat. Drug extraction and HPLC analysis were used to evaluate tacrolimus tissue distribution and consequently the targeting efficiency of the prepared PLA‐TAC‐NP. PLA‐TAC‐NP proved their success in targeting liver and spleen, by showing significantly higher drug amounts compared to the rats injected with free tacrolimus. PLA‐TAC‐NP increased tacrolimus concentration in the liver 24 fold and in the spleen 1.94 fold whereas tacrolimus concentration in the kidneys decreased by 7.12 fold. Transmission electron microscopy
(TEM) was used to examine a liver section, obtained from a rat that has received PLA‐TAC‐NP. TEM
images showed PLA‐TAC‐NP in a Kupffer cell and in the liver sinusoids. Therefore, PLA‐TAC‐NP are promising drug delivery systems for achieving localized immunosuppression and minimizing nephrotoxicity in liver transplant patients.

A novel atmospheric pressureionization process, Direct Impact Corona Ionization (DICI), is described here. In this process, a corona impinges onto the flat surface of a stainless steel pin carrying a thin film of dried bacterial suspension, the analyte. Two electrodes—a corona electrode and the sample pin—are immersed in hot inert He gas flux, flowing past them towards a 0.4 mm orifice leading to a mass spectrometer analyzer. An electric potential of 1.5–3.0 kV is placed between the two. At distances less than 1 cm, an intermittent arc is formed. At approximately 4 mm, the arc becomes a continuous corona discharge (plasma). The plasma is hot enough to: A) locally melt the impact zone on the steel pin, and B) ablate the dry thin bacterial film deposited on the metal pin. Biomolecular ions as heavy as 790 m/z are generated. Mass spectral fingerprints of bacteria are obtained with a high degree of reproducibility by selecting the highest intensity of an “indicator ion”, 560.5 m/z or another relatively heavy ion whose appearance signals efficient vaporization of low volatility components.

Phagocytes generate nitric oxide (NO) in large quantities to combat bacteria. The spore‐producing Gram‐positive organisms of Bacillus cereus family are causative agents from mild to a life threatening
infection in humans and domestic animals. Our group have shown that glycoconjugates (GCs) activate macrophages and enhance killing of Bacillus
spores. In this investigation, we will explore the effect of different GCs structures on NO production. The objective of this study is to study effects of GCs 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 on NO release upon exposure to B. cereus and Bacillus anthracis
spores by macrophages. Our results demonstrated that GCs activated macrophages and increased NO production using studied GCs ligands compared to macrophage only (p<0.001). GC2 and GC8 were able to further increase NO production in macrophages compared to the B. anthracis
spores treated macrophages (p<0.001). Our finding suggests that GCs could be used as potential mediators of NO production in macrophages to fight B. anthracis and other pathogens.

The biological functions of vitamin E related compounds have been of interest in biomedical research for several decades. Among those compounds, α‐, β‐, δ‐, and γ‐tocopherols and their oxidation products, α‐, β‐, δ‐, γ‐tocopherylquinone and their analogs α‐TQo, γ‐TQo, TMC20 and TMC40 were recently shown to inhibit the mitochondrial cytochrome bc1 complex. In this investigation the effects of the structural variation on the inhibition of the mitochondrial cytochrome bc1 complex were analyzed using Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA). CoMFA performed using steric and electrostatic molecular fields produced a very good correlation. The best CoMFA models were obtained using the manual alignment of 12 compounds with 5 components (
,
,
,
and
). The resulting contour maps produced by the best CoMFA model were helpful in identifying the structural features required for the biological activity of compounds under study. These results would be helpful for predicting the activity of new compounds, and they could be used for guiding the design, synthesis and development of new and more effective agents.

The objective of translating developmental event time across mammalian species is to gain an understanding of the timing of human developmental events based on known time of those events in animals. The potential benefits include improvements to diagnostic and intervention capabilities. The CRAN ‘ttime’ package provides the functionality to infer unknown event timings and investigate phylogenetic proximity utilizing hierarchical clustering of both known and predicted event timings. The original generic mammalian model included nine eutherian mammals: Felis domestica (cat), Mustela putorius furo (ferret), Mesocricetus auratus (hamster), Macaca mulatta (monkey), Homo sapiens (humans), Mus musculus (mouse), Oryctolagus cuniculus (rabbit), Rattus norvegicus (rat), and Acomys cahirinus (spiny mouse). However, the data for this model is expected to grow as more data about developmental events is identified and incorporated into the analysis. Performance evaluation of the ‘ttime’ package across a cluster computing environment versus a comparative analysis in a serial computing environment provides an important computational performance assessment. A theoretical analysis is the first stage of a process in which the second stage, if justified by the theoretical analysis, is to investigate an actual implementation of the ‘ttime’ package in a cluster computing environment and to understand the parallelization process that underlies implementation.

Tachyzoites are considered to be the most important stage of Toxoplasma gondii which causes toxoplasmosis. T. gondii is, an obligate intracellular parasite which infects a wide range of cells. The present study was designed to develop a method for an early detection of T. gondii tachyzoites. The method comprised of a binding assay which was analyzed using principal component and cluster analysis. Our data showed that glycoconjugates GC1, GC2, GC3 and GC10 exhibit a significantly higher binding affinity for T. gondii tachyzoites as compared to controls (T. gondii only, PAA only, GC 1, 2, 3, and 10 only).

Stainless steel is ubiquitous in our modern world, however it can become contaminated. This can endanger our health. The aim of our study is to disinfect stainless steel using Bacillus cereus as a model organism. Bacillus cereus is a microbe that is ubiquitous in nature, specifically soil.
B. cereus is known to cause illness in humans. To prevent this, we propose to use a glycoconjugate solution (GS) for disinfection of stainless steel after it is contamination by B. cereus
spores. In this study, two GS (9, 10) were tested for disinfection effectiveness on B. cereus
spores on the surface of stainless steel foil (AISI‐Series 200/300/400, THERMA‐FOIL, Dayville, CT 0241). The disinfection rate of each GS was assessed by exposing the steel surface to B. cereus spores first and allowing them to settle for 24 hours. GS was used to treat the contaminated surface. The steel is washed and the resulting solution is plated on tryptic soy agar (TSA) plates. The GS with the fewest colony forming unit (CFU) formed on TSA is determined to be the most efficient during disinfection. Results show that both GS demonstrate a strong ability to disinfect B. cereus spores. Between the two, GS 9 shows the highest disinfection efficacy by killing approximately 99.5% of spores. This is a drastic improvement over the 0–20% disinfection of the control. Based on this we find that studied GS do have the capacity to act as a disinfectant on stainless steel.

The concentration of vegetative Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) in phosphate buffered saline decreased when subjected to ultraviolet (UV) light from light emitting diodes
(LEDs) in the presence of 0.01% Degussa P25 titanium dioxide
as compared to a sample that contained bacteria only, a sample of bacteria that contained 0.01%
and bacteria that was subjected to the same UV light but no
The starting concentration of each sample was on the order of
colony forming units per milliliter (CFU/mL) and the time required for complete kill was less than 100min when the peak wavelength was 370 nm for the four LED light source at a total LED power of 0.8 milliWatts (mW), decreasing to less than 75 min for a total LED power of 3 mW. Changing the peak wavelength by 7 nm to 377 nm decreased the kill of vegetative B. subtilis to less than 1 log at 100 min for 5 mW total LED power. This work was performed under Federal Contract W9113M‐09‐C‐0136 in support of the Radiance Technologies, Inc., prime contract from US Army SMDC, Huntsville, AL.

Serum proteins and peptides have potential as biomarkers since they form the structural and functional basis of tissues and are involved in metabolic and regulatory processes. Changes in their profiles or their breakdown products have been of interest as potential biomarkers. Tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) and femoral head separation (FHS) are two metabolic skeletal problems in poultry that cause lameness. The objective of this study was to identify serum peptide changes associated with lameness in poultry that may be predictive of the disease and may help in eliminating these hereditary defects from the genetic pool. Serum peptides were extracted from six‐wk‐old chickens with or without the above leg problems using
magnetic beads and analyzed by MALDI‐TOF mass spectrometry. Differentially expressed peptides were analyzed in the m/z range of 1,000–10,000 using ClinproTool™ software. Twenty two peaks from TD and 20 from FHS affected chickens were compared with their respective controls. The spectral peaks were identified using mass spectrometry followed by a data base search. Some of the peptides identified were hemostasis associated breakdown products. No differentially expressed peptide was detected in FHS but a peptide with m/z 5308.1 was elevated in chickens with TD (p⩽0.05). It was identified as a fragment of alpha 1 type‐XI isoform 1. Type XI collagen is a cartilage specific extracellular matrix protein that is involved in the organization of other collagens and maintains extracellular matrix integrity. Its breakdown product may indicate cartilage degeneration in tibial dyschondroplasia thus may serve as a surrogate marker for this problem.